In the Last Samurai, Tom Cruise’s greatest role of Nathan Algren, arrives in Japan somewhat reluctant and even disdainful at first of the country into which he has just stepped foot. Interestingly enough, he seems to resent being in the minority in Japan, and has little regard for Simon Graham, the British contact who is looking to help British and American interests in Japan yet is a photographer and scholar. A man of formidable intellectual capabilities, he is however ever so slightly autistic towards his own, being unable to read their moods as well as he can the Japanese.
Honoured to be presented before the Meiji Emperor, he is pleased where Bagley is bored and Algren bewildered and possibly even annoyed. This is clearly a distinct honour, but it doesn’t seem to interest the Americans much, and what is more is that Sergeant Gant (not Gad as I mistakenly called him in the previous essay) is scornful of the Japanese Bushi at first glance. This is where Graham sets him straight that the Bushi were the finest warriors on earth, while the Irish and English were falling behind culturally and militarily at one time.
This evident respect for Japan is very jarring to the other two, who really don’t understand his appreciation for the land of the Rising Sun. Gant remains doubtful of Japan’s brilliance, whereas Algren expresses interest in the martial sources, showing himself determined to know his enemy. Algren is thinking like a general not a sentimental scholar from Britain or France.
What is worth mentioning real quick is how a drunken Graham demonstrates a great deal of blood-thirst, which startles and frightens even Gant & Algren, with the former seeking to diffuse the situation before giving up. It is honestly the funniest scene in the movie.
But the movie soon reveals contrary to the historic events that the last stand of the Bushi that they do not use fire-arms.
Now what makes the conflict so strange for foreigners to understand, is that Algren’s military counsellor in the Meiji army is a Bushi. You see the Samurai historically didn’t fully oppose Meiji, there were those on both sides, with the men of the time truly unsure of where Japan was going and whether it should be going in that direction. They eventually came to a kind of compromise between each of the factions, one which necessitated several battles and conflicts, with the final stand of the Bushi actually involving the ‘Empire’ of Japan vs the Republic of Ezo (Hokkaido) which the Bushi lost and resulted in Ezo becoming part of Japan.
Algren is a little nervous at having a Samurai on his side, who eyes him with sharp eyes, with the two men aware that the Samurai colonel is smart, savvy and dangerous. He is evidently a good man, and so he ought to be treated with respect and not peeved off.
The training goes well at first, until Bagley & Omura weigh in stupidly, with Algren forced to demonstrate how poorly equipped his students are. This also shows his suicidal tendencies, which further displease his employers, and crystallises the bushi colonel’s sentiments towards Algren (sentiments that are hard to read, but seem to involve a measure of both respect and exasperation, towards this evidently broken tiger).
The battle that is forced on Algren goes very badly, with Algren ordered to pull back, but refusing then Gant does the same thing.
This is where we see a touching moment or two actually, one between Algren and the lieutenant under his command (the Japanese one) who is frightened and flustered, as he is likely the son of a farmer or an ashigaru (lower ranking warrior) and is green. Algren reassures him, in a paternalistic manner, ere he turns to command Gant away who refuses telling him to shove his orders.
The affection and displeasure in Algren’s eyes here is unmistakable, as is the loyalty and love on the part of Gant. He may have failed to keep Algren out of the bottle, but it is evident that he has no intention of leaving him to die.
What happens next is a flurry of death and blood, as Gant is killed off in battle with this being one of the most sorrowful scenes. Gant was genuinely likeable, and ever so Irish in his aggressiveness, his fierce determination to do right by his kin and his sense of loyalty (as the Celts are a loyal bunch when push comes to shove). Algren for his part, is enraged and throws himself even more into the battle, and is clearly once he no longer has his guns to fall back on, at a disadvantage.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. There is something very fascinating about how well Algren does, how fiercely he battles and something that is both very Japanese in how he strives to kill all around him when trapped in the heat of battle, but also something Anglo-Scandinavian and even Celtic about the battle-rage that overtakes him. As he goes full berserker (minus the shield-biting), one can clearly see that he is far more in his element in the heat of battle than in some urban setting.
In cities, Algren is like a cheap sword; he rusts. But in the countryside and in battle, he gleams, and glitters brightly.
Though a broken tiger, one without fangs and claws, those he does have are sharp enough to still kill. As Hirotaro discovers.
The imbecilic brother-in-law of Katsumoto manages to push Algren down, and prepares ever so slowly and ceremonially, to kill the American, who proceeds to stab and kill him. Katsumoto watching all this, is reminded of his vision of the tiger.
The truth is the tiger was on the banner of one of his men, but the one whom it is a ‘totem animal’ of is Algren. So that the Native, the Anglo-Saxon & the Japanese all become rolled into one, within this scene.
Katsumoto doesn’t simply spare Algren because he disliked his brother-in-law (I’m joking), he does so because he sees once again the vision, but also all of this. He sees that Algren has a destiny, and that he is not so different from them.
The vision is a sign of divine intervention, and one that Katsumoto clearly takes seriously, so that we have some sort of bond already forged between him and Algren. It is one which links their souls together, because just as there are kinsmen united by blood, or by oaths there are those who connected by their very souls in a way. Or so I’ve come to believe, and the Japanese are the sort of people in my experience who very much believe in this sort of thing.
They are very aware of the spiritual realm, and are keen to ameliorate their connection to it all while surviving as best as possible in a fallen world obsessed with materialism.
As to Algren, rusted and broken as he is, he does cling rather strongly to the positive virtues of the classic American; he is honourable, quick to indignation where morality is concerned and is even predisposed towards chivalry after a fashion. His is the combative nature which saw the Founding Fathers resist Britain, in order to gain their independence and being pragmatic they had no problem with allying with France to achieve the victory they needed, with this pragmatism being therein Algren though it is often outweighed by his suicidal desires and ill-temper.
Algren does not begin his captivity well. Wounded and broken in spirit, he is practically comatose by the time he arrives in Katsumoto’s village in the mountains of Saitama.
Cared for by Koyuki’s character of Taka (she’s a great actress check out some of her dramas from the early 2000s and other movies, she’s probably the second best Japanese actor in this movie, the best naturally being Sanada Hiroyuki), Algren struggles to regain consciousness.
Catatonic almost from being forced to quit cold-turkey, his alcoholism, he struggles to adjust. What is so fascinating about this adjustment, is that he seems to utter more than one death threat, and struggles with the very notion of captivity. Algren though flash-backing heavily to his time with the Natives, seems to feel some sense of shame at being pitied and left to the mercy of his enemies.
Humiliated, the tiger is put on display and regarded with disgust by the children of Hirotaro and Taka, with Taka in this situation seeing through the man. She knows how best to heal his spirit and body, but is reluctant at every turn of the way. Nobutada, Katsumoto’s son at one point thinks it not worth the trouble to detox the man, and suggests letting him have some booze, with Taka refusing outright.
Now by this time in the movie, we have seen Algren slide from drinking a little bit of whiskey in America to downing Sake like it was running out. In captivity he was even more intent on carrying on as a drunk.
Excess in Japan is disapproved of, as a nation defined by self-discipline as much as it is by a sense of love for the slow hard work that goes into self-actualisation, so that Algren’s comportment here must be understood to be disgraceful and utterly so in their eyes. And it isn’t hard to see why; he’s a slob, he’s clearly only out for short-term self-gratification via booze and despite having killed the family husband and father has the gall to beg for them to give him sake.
In all, during his detox he shows the ugliest side of Anglo-culture, and has little immediate shame it seems to the very proper, and dignified Japanese family. Can one really blame them for despising him? I mean we’d all despise him far more, than they clearly do.
Algren’s early captivity though, is one that is similar to a lot of people’s current day experience in a lot of places; held captive by self-gratifying, media obsessed modern culture, many millions are in a similar situation to-day.
But in Algren’s case, after about a week he breaks free from his detox, and begins to inspect the village and his immediate surroundings. He is followed by Bob, a silent Samurai whom he gives the name Bob to initially in mockery, but then later in fondness. The two share some sort of bond that grows over the course of the movie, in a way Bob is the Japanese answer to Gant, a watchful protector over Algren who seeks to rescue him in a paternalistic sense from himself.
The difference of course is that initially Bob doesn’t like him. But over the course of the movie, he seems to follow him everywhere, watching over him and quietly guiding him towards the road of finding himself, in this regard Bob is one of the most underrated paternal-figures in cinematic history.
I won’t lie, I find his death-scene both horrifying and tragic all at once. Impressive considering Bob only has one thing he utters in the entirety of the movie; ‘Arugren-san!’.
But the most important bond that Algren forges in the village is that which he does with the Katsumoto family. In this he embodies the story of Yvain the Lion Knight from Arthuriana, so that the creatives of this movie changed it from a knight to a samurai and from a lion to a tiger, a good change I would argue.
Each of the Katsumotos could do with their own essay, but I think I shall put it all into one large essay next week (as I’m currently ill, am dealing with massive pain and have little in the way of time at the time of the writing of this article).
Algren’s imprisonment and his journey from drunken commander to erstwhile, humiliated prisoner is an interesting one. It was necessary for his character also that he hit rock bottom so that he could regain a sliver of self-respectability. The man truly is a disgrace at the start, and by the time he journeys to the monastery to visit with Katsumoto, he’s starting to regain a little dignity (not much mind you, but a little). Thematically, he’s still very much the untoothed and declawed kitten rather than the tiger that Katsumoto foresaw, but we’ll get into how he finds his claws and teeth again soon.
Edit: And for those who have not read the first article here it is;
Never thought of Cruise's character's dignity as all that important before. Gotta rewatch the movie.
Another great article. On another topic, can you talk about Soloman Kane in an article?